Five Better Practice Tips for Spicing Things Up

Daily grind of teaching got you down?  Finding it difficult to put spring break behind you?  Try these five teaching practices by Roben Torosyan to improve outcomes and liven up your classes.

Wait—Most teachers know that they should wait after asking a question in class, but they don’t accurately perceive how long they wait.  Often, teachers wait less than a second before calling on someone, pacing nervously, or rephrasing the question.  Consciously taking the time to wait three to five seconds will allow students adequate time to speak up, answer more fully, and ask better questions themselves.

Kick-start your opening; shout before you walk out—Be sure to start and end your classes with something memorable.  Drama and action can motivate learning in class and after it’s over.  Kick-start your opening with an especially dramatic example, an unobvious questions, the answer to a difficult homework problem, a relevant cartoon, or some intriguing background music.  End by having students shout out a one-word takeaway.  Or ask the question you’ll start the next class with.

Do less and do it more deeply—Imagine a list of 12 learning objectives.  Next, imagine that you need to rate each as essential, important, or of minor importance.  Now, what if you were challenged a little more to select no more than five objectives as essential and important?  Most faculty would find this difficult to do, but it is a significant thing to consider when creating your own curriculum.  With doing more things comes spending less time on each thing.  Therefore, consider the fact that each daily plan should include no more than three to five vital takeaways that students will understand, be able to do, or think differently about.

Grade smarter, not just harder—It’s no question that a large portion of an instructor’s time is spent grading.  They take the time to write comments only to discover that students continue to make the same mistakes in future assignments.  Instead, try returning problem-sets marked only right or wrong and have students find and correct their errors before points are assigned for work.  Only mark one page of a draft, noting the problems that students can look for in the rest of their paper.  Challenge students to correct their mistakes for further revisions.  Offer more clarifying feedback.  Rather than mentioning that something is “unclear,” guide the student to “expand, explain, and give examples.”  Lead and end critical comments with strengths.

Mix it up—It’s an easy thing to find yourself falling into ruts and using the same activities over and over.  Consider switching up your usual “think/pair/share” exercise with a small group activity or a large group debate.  Don’t just mix up activities, but also presentation modes (visual, aural, kinetic) so that the content comes to students in a variety of different ways.

Adapted from: Roben Torosyan for Magna Publications

By: Jessica Moser 

Active Learning Activities - Debbie Ernie, English

While this seems like a prime moment for me to engage in the whimsical rhetoric my writing typically includes, I will spare you from some bizarre analogy or tangential introduction and instead let you immediately get to a better piece of rhetoric: Professor Debbie Ernie’s active learning activity focused on (you guessed it) rhetoric.

Setting: Activity implemented in multiple sections of same 100-level course; activity takes about 20 minutes in active learning classroom (5 pods with 4 students per pod) but time varies in traditional classrooms due to prep and transition time for class sharing (see extended discussion below)

Purpose of the activity: For the Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading and Writing, we place a large emphasis on rhetoric as a way for students to transfer knowledge learned in the seminar to other classes or writing they will do on their chosen career paths. A good entry point for many students is through advertisements and social media, examples of rhetoric they come into contact with regularly, examples that might have more obvious elements of rhetoric. For this activity, done both in an active learning and traditional classroom, my students were identifying rhetorical choices made in advertisements. The goal here was to review concepts we had been discussing in their own words and through their own analyses of use of the term.

Setup for the activity + how the activity unfolded in the classroom: This activity would come toward the beginning of a discussion of the elements of rhetoric, but after having done some work/reading as an entire class on these elements. This activity is thus a bit of review/testing student knowledge, as well as a chance for students to begin to play with these devices themselves. This activity took place in both an active learning room and traditional classrooms. I will discuss the procedure for the active learning version. Then, I will discuss the differences when placed in a traditional space.

Active Learning Procedure: Before the students arrived, I wrote one element of rhetoric we had been discussing on each whiteboard (near each pod). We had one extra whiteboard. On that board, I listed some options –print advertisement, YouTube video, meme, etc. Once students had taken their respective seats, I discussed the activity:

1. As a group, find or create a strong example of use of your board's element.
2. This example can take any of the forms listed on the extra board.
3. Be prepared to share with the class. You will need to define your element in your own words (review) and explain your example's use of said element. Why is this a strong example? How is your concept at work here.

Students took time searching and/or creating as a pod-group using the computers at each pod. I walked around to answer questions and comment on their finds. All groups sought out several examples and then voted on the best use of their given element, which I was pleased to see! This is why I allowed for some wiggle room as far as time. Once each group had made their final choice (two created something, three found something), we shared. I displayed images from each pod to all of the other pods and projector screens as groups discussed.

Traditional Classroom Comparison: This was a fairly simple but effective use of our technology. Just how effective this was came into play when attempting similar activities in my more traditional classrooms. Because of a lack of pods, a more traditional classroom has certain limitations that lead to needed prep work by the instructor or students. Some options: I bring magazines into the classroom, this of course limits options for discovery; students are asked to bring in advertisements, this is an issue for coordinating group work on this small of an activity, as well as the issue that many students print in black and white, which plays into rhetorical concerns; students bring in laptops; or I instruct students the day-of to make up their own advertisement or meme (could do so with scratch paper or laptops). Even in making these decisions, the small activity becomes more complicated. Because I teach several sections, I tried a few variations. I brought in magazines, a wide variety, but felt students spent less time analyzing multiple options, and rather just picked one at almost-random (NOT a goal of this activity). I also asked students to choose their own advertisements before class, as well as bringing in laptops. With the choosing of individual ads, students were given assigned elements ahead of time.

The group work once in the classroom felt limited with the group search aspect removed. I certainly could not assess their searching and critical thinking involved in person. We also had to waste some time moving into groups, no matter the prep chosen, especially in a classroom filled with rows of desks. While the project got them reviewing rhetoric, and while I would not necessarily cut it from future classes in more traditional rooms, these versions certainly presented more challenges. Lastly, sharing could be done one of two ways –groups coming up to the front to display their ad/meme, or small groups sharing with another nearby group. Again, a little more finagling required and time-wasted.

After the activity: The assessment was tied into the sharing portion of the activity, both the review and analysis of the use of the concept for each group. Assessing their work and knowledge was certainly more easily observable in situations where they were searching while in the room.

Additional comments from the instructor: On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 = high success), I would rate this activity as a 3-4 for a traditional classroom. It requires more prep from the teacher and/or students and makes the group aspect and sharing of the activity less accessible. If I were to rate this in an active learning setting, however, I would give it a 4-5. This activity runs smoothly in these classrooms, and is an easy and fun way to utilize our technology.

Tip provided by: Debbie Ernie
Write up by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities - Abra Brisbin, Math

Tragically, many students come to college with very little modeling experience. Not modeling in the sense of fashionably wearing retail clothing or modeling in the sense of painstakingly gluing tiny pieces together in order to make ostentatious little cars, but modeling in the sense of deriving mathematical equations to represent real-world phenomenon. Dr. Abra Brisbin, Department of Mathematics, utilizes an active learning teaching technique called “information search” to get her students to interact with models in a meaningful way.

Setting: Activity utilizing pod groups (5 pods with 3 students per pod), groups reporting out, and a discussion involving the whole class

Setup for the activity: Students were assigned to read two papers ("Just modeling through: A rough guide to modeling" by Michael Pidd and "It's the findings, stupid, not the assumptions" by Stephen Shugan) and write answers to three questions about the papers before class.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: I assigned each group one of the first 5 principles of modeling discussed in Pidd's paper. They discussed their assigned principle within their pod, and used the whiteboards to write answers to the following questions: What does this principle mean? Why is it important? Give an example of applying the principle. While discussing within their pods, several groups used the computers at each table to bring up a copy of the paper to refer to.

After about 15 minutes, I asked a member of each group to explain their answers to the rest of the class. I solicited discussion on connections between the principles and students' prior knowledge by asking, "Did any of the principles surprise you?" and "How could this principle apply to the model of the wolf population we worked on last week?"

After the activity: The presentation by students and discussion were part of the activity. On a subsequent homework problem, students were asked to build a model of the number of restaurants in the United States, and write a paragraph describing how their model-building process illustrated a principle of modeling.

Additional comments from the instructor: "I was pleased that this activity got students to think about the broader context of modeling, in contrast to the specific mathematical tools for modeling that are the focus of most of the course. In the future, I would like to spend more time discussing the Shugan paper (most of the time was spent discussing the Pidd paper), and integrate additional questions throughout the term to call students' attention back to this activity."

Tip provided by Abra Brisbin

Write-up by Jon Pumper

Post-secondary, my dear Watson.

In a world where NCIS and CSI consistently make an appearance amongst the top 20 most-watched-television-shows, it is pretty safe to say people enjoy engaging in a good mystery. And I mean “engaging” in the fullest extent of the word: when BBC started up Sherlock, everyone I knew was suddenly talking in British accents, smoking calabash pipes, and inspecting things from table counters to bologna sandwiches. People love cracking a case, even if they have to make up the case themselves.

Consider feeding off that energy by introducing mystery to the classroom. You could have students gather clues to figure out why a hypothetical market crashed, or inspect properties of different bacteria to identify what killed the infected murder victim. By framing the lesson as a mystery, you get your students to engage in the material in a way many of them engage recreationally.

For ideas and templates of established ‘mystery lessons,’ visit Mystery Spot at http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/mspot/. 

Tip provided by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities - Don Gaber, Information Systems

The efficacy of the active learning classroom lies on the principal that students learn while doing. There could not be a more appropriate demonstration of this then Don Gaber’s active learning activity depicted below:

Setting: 20-minute activity implemented in a 300-level course; 5 pods with 6 students per pod

Purpose of the activity: One of the course goals is to "apply procedural code and objects to solve business problems and meet business requirements." This activity has students identify multiple options available for a combo box programming object. Students must compare and contrast the options, and distinguish which option or options could provide a useful solution to a common business application problem, or meet programming project requirements.

Setup for the activity: Students complete a hands-on tutorial that includes a brief introduction to a "combo-box" control object, which you commonly see in software used to click and select various options.

When programming these objects, there are typically 20-30 properties to consider. Examples include color, size, style, autocomplete, sorting, etc.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: One student in each group logs on to the Pod PC, and I assign each group a range of properties that begin with the following letters:

• Pod 1: a-b
• Pod 2: c-d
• Pod 3: e-i
• Pod 4: l-s
• Pod 5: s-v

The students then experiment with the options to see what purpose or effect they have on the combo-box object. After about 15 minutes, each team displays their screen to the class and demonstrates their findings. They must also explain how their findings may relate to building an effective programming application.

After the activity: Students demonstrate their findings to the class, and invariably someone remembers and uses at least one of the findings in a future project!

Additional comments from instructor: Students demonstrate what they have discovered instead of me demonstrating each property one-by-one –much more interesting and effective! This same method can work for nearly any software program that has options that should be explored (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, WinTab, etc.).

Tip provided by: Don Gaber

Active Learning Activities - Jean Pratt, Information Systems

Everyone knows that students learn at different paces. Not everyone knows how to effectively teach to this reality. Dr. Jean Pratt, Department of Information Systems, shares a technique she uses to make her activities relevant and engaging to all of her students, no matter what level of understanding they are currently on:

Setting: Regularly implemented in a 300-level course; 8 or 10 pods (depending on section) with 3-4 students per pod.

Purpose of the activity: Engage every student at whatever level of understanding he or she might be on the given learning objective.

Setup for the activity: Students are provided with "Your Turn" exercises based off instructional materials (usually a combination of PowerPoint slides with audio and supplemental lecture/explanation). The level of understanding in my courses tends to be bell curved, so the "Your Turn" exercises increased in difficulty level. One problem was that students on the upper level of the curve had already completed all the "Your Turn" exercises prior to class while students on the other end of the curve were still struggling with the basic exercises. One solution (from Cindy Albert) I had implemented was to have a repertoire of challenge exercises specific to the semester project so that upper-level students could apply directly to their project the learning from the lesson. That still works great, but students are all over the board with the content on which they're working and I lacked the ability to get a really good feel for students' level of understanding on each knowledge/skill. Don Gaber's suggestion: come to class prepared to tweak the existing "Your Turn" exercises. Provide a twist—something that wasn't covered in the PowerPoint slides or the lecture. For example, introduce a "yes, but what if…" scenario where the student has to think beyond the existing scenario and apply the knowledge/skills to a similar (but slightly different) scenario that extends current understanding.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom:

• Students: Since the whole class is working on some version of the same problem, my informal perception is that students are more open to help—perhaps not as embarrassed at being so far behind in comparison to other students. The same PowerPoint slide is displayed on the big screens, but where students are related to their working with that exercise differs. More "Oh! I get it now!" comments and more demonstrated code/text/diagrams. I really believe that the underperforming students are more at ease now (or perhaps I am!). My perceptions of the upper performing students are that they are strengthening their independent learning skills as they have to search for the answers and they are more engaged, since the tweaked exercise is something they could only get by being in class.
  
• Instructor: The whole class flows better now as students work through regular, tweaked and/or project challenge questions. As I kneel down between 2-3 students to work Socratically through either the regular or tweaked exercises, I am able to meet students where they are better than I was when students were all on different exercises. The upper performing students are challenged with the extensions while the underperforming students are grasping the basics. Once the upper performing students complete the tweaked exercises, they move on to the project-specific challenge questions but then come back and rejoin the class on the next regular/tweaked exercise.

After the activity: Are they [students] demonstrating an increased (relative to previous) understanding of knowledge skills? Demonstrated understanding is either through verbal explanation of what and why or physical illustration of code, text or diagram.

Additional comments from the instructor:

• The activity is actually an "approach" and so was applied to each individual/group activity, where appropriate.
• Credit for this goes to Don Gaber, who shared this approach during one of the Active Learning COP group discussions. I tried it the next day and have been incorporating it into as many activities as possible since then.
• I absolutely love this approach.

Tip Provided by: Jean Pratt
Write-up by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities - Tom Sulzer, Information Systems

Professor Tom Sulzer, Department of Information Systems, shares his active learning activity focused on simulations:

Setting: Simulation activity utilizing pod groups (8-10 pods with 4 students per pod)

Setup for the activity: To prepare the students for this activity I had to help them install an SAP client piece of software. In addition, we talked about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions in business and had a reading assignment associated with ERP to better help them understand what it is that ERP is about.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: Part of the SAP curriculum is a "Distribution Game" which allows students to role play being the managers of a company that distributes water. The simulation typically lasts 3 classes and allows the students to gain experience using a real ERP system.

• The first day, students are allowed to modify their product's price and marketing expenditures to get their products to be purchased by a simulated market. Note the market that the simulation tries to simulate is Retail Stores in Germany which is divided up into 3 regions: North, South and West.
  
• In the second session, students are allowed to replenish their inventory once as well as set their product's price and amount of marketing as they did the first day.
  
• In the third session, students build on what they were able to do in the previous days by having unlimited replenishment capability as well as the ability to forecast and select specific replenishment amounts. Note they still are setting price and marketing expenses as well.

After the activity: After each session, we summarized what occurred and allowed the students to share experiences, good and bad. The intent is to help them appreciate, in a safe setting, some of the real-world types of decisions that managers struggle with. While it is in a contrived scenario, the tools they use and their reactions are very close to reality.

Additional comments from instructor: "I believe that the simulation is able to drive home the use of ERP systems and allows them to get hands on experience with an actual piece of software they will potentially see in a real work environment setting."

Tip provided by: Tom Sulzer

Active Learning Activities- Ursula Whitcher, Math

While John Conway’s Game of Life (a cellular automaton) appears to be quite different from Milton Bradley’s Game of Life (a rather trite board game), there are a few prevailing similarities. For instance, both represent scenarios where there is a finite number of situations a player can occupy; both involve witnessing the overall evolution of its players; and both can be considered “zero-player” games, in the sense that Conway’s Game of Life requires no players and Milton Bradley’s Game of Life should really never have any players, especially if Klaus Teuber’s Settler’s of Catan is within easy reach. Dr. Ursula Whitcher, Department of Math, focuses less on the comparison of complex mathematical phenomenon to popular board games and more on just the mathematical phenomenon part in her active learning activity featuring John Conway’s Game of Life:

Setting: 20-minute activity implemented in a 100-level course; 6 pods with 5 students per pod

Purpose of the activity: Students explore and discuss Conway's Game of Life using the Google Easter egg, as displayed on pod computers.

Setup for the activity: Googling Conway's Game of Life produces an implementation of the cellular automaton "game."  The game can be paused and restarted.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: Groups explore different starting configurations, trying to answer three questions:

• Can you make a pattern that stays the same for several seconds?
• Can you make a pattern that oscillates between a couple of states?
• Can you make a pattern that moves across the screen?

This activity leads into a discussion of the formal rules of the "game."

After the activity: Students use the formal rules of Conway's Game of Life on homework and exam problems.  Cellular automata are also a possible example for a final exam essay.

Additional comments from instructor: Other possible prompts to explore with this activity include:

• Can you make a pattern that disappears/dies out?
• Can you guess some of the rules of the game?

Active Learning Activities - Carolyn Otto, Math

Anyone who has struggled to communicate with another person—or even worse, witnessed another person struggling to communicate with another person—has experienced (or witnessed) the linguistic phenomenon that people relate to words in many different ways. Words such as “palette,” “illicit,” or “please go get me a cup of coffee” are constantly confused, little to the fault of any artist, bank robber, or writing intern involved. But there are some words that are so confusing that they can hardly ever be used in conversation without immediately invoking panicked faces, nervous sweating, or frantic wikepedia surfing. “Fractal” is one such word, a “natural phenomenon or a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern that displays at every scale.” ¹ Dr. Caroyln Otto, from the Department of Mathematics, devotes an entire class period to the exploration this confusing topic, and describes the lesson plan in today’s issue of “Active Learning Activities.”

Setting: Activity utilizing pod groups (6 pods with 4-6 students per pod)

Setup for the activity: The activity involved the definition of fractals. The students didn’t have any outside information about the topic beforehand. This was introduced during class.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: At the beginning of class, each pod was given a list of questions to discuss. These questions included what is the definition of a fractal, how would we use them, and can you give an example of a fractal. After the students turned in a written summary of their thoughts, the class watched a PBS documentary on fractals.

After the activity: After the video, their summaries were returned and the pods were asked to type up a new summary on their Pod computers. I went around to each Pod to discuss their early answers and new answers. Each Pod emailed me a new summary.

Additional comments from the instructor: “The students were engaged at all stages of this activity. There was a lot of communication between the students and myself as well as attention to the film. The students were excited about the subject and many brought that excitement to the next days of class.”

¹ See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal

Tip provided by Carolyn Otto

Framing provided by Jon Pumper

Dr. Leah Olson-McBride on Role-Playing

Role-playing exercises offer a unique way of learning material: they require a high amount of imagination and communicating skills that are useful in any discipline. Dr. Leah Olson-McBride, Department of Social Work, shares how she uses Role-Playing exercises in her class:

One thing I’ve started doing in my Groups and Families class—a class where we teach the students how to be social workers with groups and family units—is a fishbowl activity, where students will actually role-play and act out a scenario. In the middle of the class, after teaching specific techniques regarding the upcoming scenario, I put up a case study on the screen and pull some students from the class to live out the situation. One person will play the social worker, other students will be the family, etc. After the performance, the class will give feedback on what the social worker did well, and what they could improve upon. Students seem to be really anxious about participating, but always give good feedback on it. A common response I’ll get is: “I was really nervous being chosen, but I’m really glad I got to do it.” If it’s really hard content, sometimes I’ll have them show me the worst way to do it first: it takes the pressure off performing perfectly, and, of course, the students think it’s really funny.

Role-playing can actually be applied to nearly every discipline: view creative examples and types of role-playing exercises at Carleton’s teaching website here. 

Interview by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities - Richard Spindler, Math

What do pancakes, classrooms, and The Bird have in common? They can all be flipped! Professor Richard Spindler from the Department of Mathematics speaks to his success in flipping the classroom in this active learning activity post:

Setting: Problem-solving activities utilizing pod groups (6 pods with 3-4 students per pod) and Q&A, as needed

Setup for the activity: Students were required to watch a video and read an assignment on the topic before coming to class. I then provided questions and problems they would work on together in class, and I circulated in the classroom to answer questions.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: The students began their work together in their pod groups, discussing each problem. As they worked, they called me over with questions, and I discussed the issues either with the entire group or with the one or two students who had the question. Occasionally, if a common issue arose, I discussed it with the entire class, using the projector.

After the activity: I summarized any important points or issues that arose. After class, the students took a D2L Quiz on the topic.

Additional comments from instructor: "The students are more engaged, relaxed, and they are more likely to ask questions. In addition, the flipped nature of this activity allows me to work with them on problems as opposed to a lecture format where I would have much less time for that. From past experience, many of them typically could not do the problems independently outside of class."

Active Learning Activities - Biology Department

Much like iClickers, Google Docs, or water gun carnival games, Padlet is a technology that allows people to see real-time effects. Probably most professors who have used iClickers before have noticed that a lot of their power resides in this “real-time effect,” as students reconsider and debate over answers when they see what the majority of the class is thinking.  Padlet is another user-friendly tool to engage in this type of teaching, and the featured technology in this active learning activity post provided by the Biology department:  

Setting: 10-minute activity implemented in a 100-level course;8 pods with 4 students per pod

Purpose of the activity: The activity was designed to allow students to report back their individual results to their group-mates, to compare and evaluate these results, and to discuss patterns and differences among group members and in comparison with an average American.  They were asked to reflect on solutions –based on previous class material.

Setup for the activity:

1. In-class time the week prior was spent introducing students to the technology –Padlet (www.padlet.com).  Students were given a simple, fun task to explore using the technology –answering "What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?"  Each member was asked to write a text response, including his/her name and students were encourage to add images in order to learn how to do so.
   
   *Note, this activity occurred late in the semester when group rapport was already well-established. Issues of consumption and waste were previously covered in class.
   
2. Students completed an online Ecological Footprint inventory.  Each student took a screen shot of the output data and graphs and saved the picture.
3. Each student accessed their group's Padlet via a link provided on D2L and inserted the screenshot into the page .I also posted mine.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: After comparing the results, students then addressed several questions about their own and other group members' results:

1. How does your footprint compare to the US average?  To your instructor and/or classmates?
2. What accounts for the greatest proportion of your footprint? Is this surprising? Why or why not?
3. What could you do in order to decrease your footprint?

After the activity: Students were assessed based on their written answers to the prompts using our standard rubric for class activities (shared below).

5 pts Excellent	4 pts Good	3 pts Fair	2 pts Needs work	1 pt Poor	0 pts Unacceptable
·meets all format standards ·key points clearly summarized ·thorough and thoughtful analysis provided ·reflection includes appropriate references to background info, opinion, connections to other class material	·1 minor issue with format or content	·2 minor issues with format or content	·Several minor issue with content or format OR ·1 major issue with format or content	·Numerous issues AND/OR ·Reflects minimal understanding or effort	·Does not meet standards OR ·Does not reflect understanding

 Additional comments from instructor: Padlet was an effective means of sharing information among group members and by having it online students had more time to reflect than they might if the results were shared during a face-to-face discussion in class.  However, in retrospect I think the Padlet was not best suited for an out-of-class activity.  During our practice with Padlet the students seemed most excited about how the page updated in real-time during class as different class members added things and updated it.  Since they worked on this assignment outside of class it was unlikely that students were updating their page simultaneously and thus the 'real-time' effect was lost.  The Padlet was still a sufficient way of reporting back to the group but I think many other technologies might have worked equally well –such as a Google doc, etc… I would consider using Padlet for something like this again, though, as it is user-friendly and visual, so I do still think it's useful.

I think using Padlet is best suited-for a project/activity when students are simultaneously working on a project in-class together.  This Ecological Footprint Activity isn't necessarily something we would want to produce into a large document as it would likely be overwhelming – so I don't think I would do that with this assignment.  I am still not sure the best way to have students share and reflect on their Ecological Footprints – or if sharing is necessary.

Note that I do still recommend Padlet as a tool –and think it can be useful for both real-time activities and as a more general repository for information.

To check out Padlet, visit the Padlet website here. 

Active Learning Activities - Louisa Rice, History

In general, generalities are never all that useful. This is primarily due to the fact that the person relaying the generality usually rarely has any specific details to support the generalized statement. I’d give examples, but then I’d actually disprove my point. Dr. Louisa Rice, Department of History, tackles the issue of student-produced generalities by constructing a close-reading active learning activity that gets students to dive into specifics:

Setting: Close reading activity utilizing pod groups (11 pods with 4-6 students per pod)

Setup for the activity: The class focuses a great deal on the ability to complete a close reading of historical documents (often to "figure out" what those old words actually mean or imply). There are many of these documents in the textbook, and they are all no longer than one page. Students were assigned these 1 page documents on multiple occasions as part of their reading preparation for class; sometimes there were accompanying quiz questions, sometimes there were not. Prior to the class in which we would discuss the assigned document I scanned the page and made it into a PDF which I then posted onto the "news" section of D2L. Theoretically, then, the students had read the document and contextual information before they came into class (although some had not). They could then access a PDF version of the document at their pod when they came into class.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: In class, I would lecture a little on the context of the document and then asked students to complete some annotations on the document as a group (we went over the Adobe annotating tools a few times in class). Usually this involved a series of questions that I put onto a PowerPoint slide (so that they could still see the questions on the large screen while they completed the work as a group on the small screen). The questions varied, depending on the source, but they all asked them to mark-up the document. For example, for work on a document by Christopher Columbus—his first reflections upon arrival in the United States, I asked them to highlight where the audience for the document was indicated, and underline places in the text where Columbus is revealing a motive in producing the document. Finally I asked them to decide as a group which of the motives revealed (denigrating the indigenous people, claiming a Christian mission, identifying riches) seemed to be the most influential or important, and to explain that importance in a sentence as a textbox on the document. In other documents I asked them to highlight important words (for example, in poem written about World War I) or to underline phrases where the meaning was unclear to them.

After the activity: Students completed the work and saved it to their group locker in D2L—so that I had a record of this (ungraded) work and also so they could return to their group commentary to study for exams. In class, I often pulled up one response on the large screen and then asked whether other groups reached similar conclusions. This normally produced a larger group discussion on what we should take-away from the document and enabled me to connect their conclusions or questions back to the larger theme or argument of the class period.

Additional comments from instructor: "Prior to the version of the activity described above, I asked students to bring the documents to class for discussion and often they did not do that. Usually our discussions were based on the "general" ideas they had discerned from the documents, not the specific details (often very relevant) of the author's writing. This way, I was actually getting them to really READ the texts closely, and I think versions of this exercise would work really well in any class where textual analysis was important."

Tip provided by: Louisa Rice
Write-up by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities - Kelly Murray, Biology

It isn’t often that I employ personal opinions on this blog; as I’m constantly reminded in the CETL office, my opinions are only valuable if they are accompanied by a handful of M&M’s or the delivery of a fresh cup of coffee.* But for this post, I will indulge myself and give my opinion as an undergraduate student who has spent a lot of time in the classroom. And as an undergraduate student who has spent a lot of time in the classroom, I can tell you that the best class periods are the ones that end with you wishing you had a little more class time.** Kelly Murray, Department of Biology, has that very good problem with the active learning activity depicted below:

Setting: Discussions utilizing pod groups (5 pods with 4 students per pod) and whole class

Setup for the activity: Prior to the in-class activity, students completed 2-3 readings and posted two questions/comments to a D2L Discussion board outside of class.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: The group in charge of facilitating that day's discussion gave a brief introductory presentation (typically using PowerPoint and video clips) on the large screens. Pod groups were given discussion questions/tasks. These often included one or more tasks in which group members were asked to list or diagram on the whiteboard. A large-group discussion followed with each group sharing information from their pod discussion and whiteboard notes.

After the activity: At the conclusion of in-class discussion, students were provided with 1-2 prompts; each student was asked to reflect on the discussion as part of a 1-page response paper which was submitted to the D2L Dropbox by the following evening. The material from the in-class discussions was also covered on unit exams.

Additional comments from instructor: "This was a 1hr 15minute class period – but we were short on time – my main issue with the activity. I was pleased, though, with the process and felt students approached the discussion from a more-informed perspective. I prefer this versus a lecture where I show a bunch of graphs, etc. to outline evidence.

*The people of CETL have never actually requested me to fetch a cup of coffee, and actually value my opinions quite frequently. I truly fulfill the role of “oppressed intern” only in my imagination.

**this of course bars any class periods that contain graded work such as labs and tests. Ironically, the opposite effect is true in these cases: these are the worst class periods.

Tip provided by: Kelly Murray
Write-up by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities - Jean Pratt, Information Systems

Communication in the virtual world is a precarious thing: one constantly runs the risk of mistaking sarcasm for sincerity, assuredness for obliviousness, or smiley faces for extraordinarily poor punctuation practices :). The students of Jean Pratt’s Information System’s course ran into this very problem in her active learning activity centered on communication between collaborative, virtual teams:

Setting: Activity utilizing pod groups (8 pods with 3-4 students per pod)

Setup for the activity: Students were instructed to work through some similar diagramming activities in a PowerPoint slide deck prior to coming to class. We had worked through a similar activity in class in the preceding class period. One purpose of this activity was to give students more practice in applying the concepts and skills. Another purpose of this activity was to expose students to working in virtual teams, which are predominant in the field of information systems.

The activity had three parts:

1. Given a scenario, students would collaboratively define business rules.
2. Given business rules defined by another group, students would collaboratively design a data model.
3. Given business rules from one group and resulting data model from another group, class would discuss both relational database design principles and communication across members in virtual teams

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: We started with two business scenarios requiring data collection and storage. Half the class received one scenario; the other half received the other scenario. Each group developed a set of business rules based on the scenario (business rules are the foundation for designing a relational database model). Groups were then instructed to share their business rules with another group on the other side of the classroom. The recipient group was to then develop a data model based on those business rules.

The first half of the activity went well. Student groups used the screen at their pods to define collaboratively the business rules. The last part of the activity also went well. I was able to bring up on the big screens—in a split-screen display—the business rules defined by one group and the resulting data model developed by another group. The design group didn't always design a model the way the business-rule group anticipated!

After the activity: At the end of the class period, students groups were directed to apply outside class the same concepts and skills to their 15-week client project.

Tip provided by: Jean Pratt
Write up by: Jon Pumper

Active Learning Activities—Tom Hilton, Information Systems

Research is very often a lonely pursuit in the undergraduate world. That could possibly be why the library is so often flooded with students weeping over their laptops, sobbing next to bookshelves, or blowing their noses into textbooks that had not previously been used for anything else. Professor Tom Hilton, Department of Information Systems, provides a support group for lonely scholars in his active learning room by assigning group research projects like the one depicted below:

Setting: Group-based activity (10 pods with 4 students per pod)

Setup for the activity: This activity was associated with a text chapter students were to read before class. Aside from the reading, the only advance preparation required of the students was me teaching them how to manage the pod technology, particularly how to display their own laptop screen on the pod display, how to switch the pod display among pod group members' laptops, and how to send their pod's screen to all pods.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: To start, I displayed from the instructor station on all pod screens a list of discussion questions that were answered or partly answered in the reading. As a class, we briefly reviewed them to establish a baseline of understanding of the questions.

Next, each pod group collaboratively chose one or two questions (depending on the number of questions and the number of pod groups) to answer. I explained that all members were to contribute to the development of a whole-pod-group-approved answer.

For 10-15 minutes (depending on the number of questions and the time available), each pod group developed answers to their chosen question/s. Each member used his/her own laptop to search the Web, text pdf (sometimes available), do calculations when needed, and/or write a summary answer. Members shared what they found by talking and by displaying their own laptops on the pod screen. During this time I circulated among the groups clarifying the question being research, (re)directing the discussion, and occasionally arbitrating disagreements.

After the activity: After the research time, each pod group presented its question and related answer. They displayed on all other pods' screens their pod's written paragraph, web resources, or whatever support they found. Usually one member spoke for the pod group, but sometimes all members contributed to the presentation. I encouraged all the other class members to ask follow-up questions for the presenting pod to answer, but this was sometimes hard because students either didn't know enough to come up with additional questions, or they were worried about embarrassing the presenters. To help with this, I would ask follow-up questions as examples. The whole class could respond to the questions, so the presenters weren't left on the spot.

Additional comments from instructor: "I use this activity in several different classes, and sometimes (as in the senior seminar) it has been appropriate to gather the answers into a text addendum of sorts. This has often become a point of pride for the students: extending the text information right up to the state of the art."

Active Learning Activities - Bob Eierman, Chemistry

Many people have fond memories of making crafts, gluing together Popsicle sticks, and coloring inside (or outside) the lines of a dinosaur coloring book either as a kid or with their kids (for you older folks in the readership). A much fewer amount of people have fond memories doing a lot of the same things when they were in Middle School and they were desperately trying to assemble a poster that could kick the crap out of Danny Jones’ poster at the science fair. And an even fewer amount have fond memories of doing the same things at the collegiate level where supplies of colored pencils, glue, and artistic motivation are often quite depleted. But the poster—an excellent learning and presentation tool—cannot be written away simply because it can often be a pain to create. Dr. Eierman, with the help of Gene Leisz, keeps the poster a part of his curriculum by introducing a digital template that the students can work on together in the active learning classroom: 

Setting: Students presented research projects with the aid of digital posters at the pod stations (15 pods total with 3 students per pod)

Setup for the activity: As part of the final project in Chem 213 (lab), each student independently selects a research question, gathers and analyzes samples in the lab, completes calculations and statistical analysis, and draws conclusions. The design and presentation of the poster is the culminating event of the research project.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: Each student created a digital poster using a PowerPoint template designed (by Gene Leisz) to fit the pod screens in the active learning rooms. There were three students to a pod and they pulled up all three of their posters onto the desktop. The first student displayed their poster; we then spent about 30 minutes visiting the displayed posters in both rooms (CEN 3814 and CEN 3504), and non-presenters moved around viewing the posters. Next, we switched to the second student at each pod and visited them for the next 30 minutes. A final 30-minute session allowed us to visit the last of the posters. In about 2 hours, we displayed 46 posters. The poster quality was high and students said the posters were easy to create starting with the provided template.

After the activity: Students also submitted the posters through the D2L Dropbox, and I was able to grade them electronically in the comfort of my office. No printing was necessary and students were able to include graphs, photographs and other imagery that enhanced the posters. In addition, the students and I will be able to retain a copy of the poster(s).Students and faculty recognized that this was an excellent way to create and display high quality posters.

Additional comments from instructor: "I have been doing poster sessions like this for over 20 years, typically with posters mounted on cardboard. The old way was a pain for the students to create and difficult physically for me to grade. As a group, these were the best looking and highest quality posters I've ever seen. Many students commented that this was an extremely convenient way to make and display this important product of the culminating event in the course. I will definitely do this again with my Chem 213 class."

Tip provided by: Bob Eierman

Write-up by: Jon Pumper

Dr. Eric Jamelske on Simulations

Biology classes have labs; social work classes have case-studies; economic classes have market simulations. Dr. Eric Jamelske, Department of Economics, speaks to the importance of including simulations in the classroom:

I think any activity that allows for simulation is really useful. If I want to get students to really understand how markets work, the best way is for them to actively simulate a real market, by participating as buyers and sellers. In Economics we have a lot of graphs, and if there’s a way I can bring a graph to life –let the students actively discover how equilibrium is derived—I think it sticks a lot more. Not every day has to have an activity, but I keep three or four on reserve to use over the course of a semester.

To read more on learning simulations, consider checking out The Gamification of Learning and Instruction by Karl M. Kapp, a book that provides strategies on designing and implementing game-based learning. We have it here at the CETL library. 

Active Learning Activities - Jean Pratt, Information Systems

Setting: Diagramming activity utilizing pod groups (8 pods with 3-4 students per pod), whiteboards, and reporting out to the whole class

Setup for the activity: Students were instructed to work through some similar diagramming activities in a PowerPoint slide deck prior to coming to class. We had worked through a similar activity in class in the preceding class period. One purpose of this activity was to emphasize the value and efficiency of sketching out ideas on a whiteboard before trying to use a computer-aided design tool to create a diagram. A second purpose of this activity was to give students more practice in applying the concepts and skills.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: Student groups gathered around each whiteboard (located at the pods) and discussed various options for diagramming a relational database. I moved from one pod to another using Socratic questioning and mini-lectures as the student groups worked through the diagramming activity. I used the doc cam to zoom in on students' work at the whiteboards to facilitate class discussion of concepts.

After the activity: At the end of the class period, students groups were directed to apply the same diagramming techniques to their 15-week client project. They were provided about 10 minutes to get started on this activity, which they would continue outside class.

Additional comments from instructor: "Student feedback indicated that students were at first a bit embarrassed about having their group work displayed and discussed but they were becoming more comfortable with it because a) they were learning from the whole-class discussion, b) they prefer to focus on the concepts before trying to implement the concepts using a computer tool, c) they prefer to be corrected in an ungraded venue rather than via graded homework, d) they value the individual group/pod attention before the class discussion, and e) they see other groups erasing and revising white-board content as we discuss errors as a full class (i.e., they realize that other groups are making the same errors)."

Active Learning Activities - Don Gaber, Information Systems

Not being an Information Systems major myself, it is hard to imagine working on a database all by my lonesome: I would most certainly need a group of people by my side in order to work effectively with RAM instead of effectively RAMming my head against a wall.  Professor Don Gaber gives his students a chance to do just this (the group work, that is, not the self-inflicted head-wounding) in our latest installment of the “Active Learning Activities” series:

Setting: Problem-based activities involving students working in pod groups (8 pods with 2-5 students per pod) and Q&A with the whole class

Setup for the activity: Students initially learned various database concepts and techniques through self-learning (flipped course) by reading and completing hands-on exercises out of class.

Next, in class we held a Q&A session to help clarify the concepts or answer any questions.

The Q&A is followed by instructor-led hands-on activities to repeat some of the hands-on exercises to reinforce learning, along with alternative solutions and perspectives (different ways to complete similar processes, such as creating advanced database queries).

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: The active learning "problem-solving" activity is held during the next class session when the instructor has one student from each group logon to the pod PC and download a "startup" database file containing the basic criteria outlining the desired results they should obtain. Students must work together to "solve the problem" by collaborating and selecting and using several of the methods learned over the past week. The instructor circulates to check progress and answer questions. Finally, each group, one at a time, displays their pod PC screen to the all of the screens in the classroom and shares and demonstrates their solution to the class.

After the activity: The various methods, concepts, and techniques are discussed in another brief Q&A session, and then students apply and use them as appropriate on their individual student database development projects. The various concepts are also included on D2L-based unit exams with m/c, t/f, selection, and fill-in-the-blank questions. The majority of assessment comes from individual database development projects.

Additional comments from instructor: "Students have achieved higher scores on exams and their individual database development projects as a result of these hands-on ‘problem-solving’ activities."

Tip provided by Don Gaber
Write-up by Jon Pumper